Telecare ready: creating a universal entitlement to telecare

Policymakers remain concerned about the future cost that long-term care will impose on society. There is a clear imperative to explore ways to reduce demand (need) for care, and to reduce the costs of care provision to the state and families. In this context, increasing attention over the last decade has focused on the potential of telecare.

However, it remains unclear that the UKʼs strategic approach to driving usage of telecare and fully exploiting its potential benefits is the right one. In many ways, it is the features of the social care system found in the UK that have shaped the telecare policy framework observable over the last decade, rather than the potential benefits that telecare can provide.

This report therefore asks: how can policymakers secure the maximum benefit from telecare now and in the future, measured in both prevention of need and prevention of cost? In particular, what is the best way to fund telecare? What is the best way to connect potential beneficiaries of telecare with telecare services, i.e. how to target telecare and maximise take-up and usage across the population?